As featured on p. 218 of "Bloggers on the Bus," under the name "a MyDD blogger."

Friday, April 17, 2009

Steve Schmidt Throws In His Lot With The Long Arc Of History

Steve Schmidt, who ran John McCain's campaign (some would say into the ground) last year, is prepared to call for the GOP to drop their opposition to gay marriage.

Former top McCain adviser Steve Schmidt is planning to use a Friday speech to the Log Cabin Republicans to urge the GOP to drop its opposition to same-sex marriage.

"I'm confident American public opinion will continue to move on the question toward majority support, and sooner or later the Republican Party will catch up to it," Schmidt plans to say according to excerpts provided to ABC News.

Schmidt's push for Republicans to endorse same-sex marriage comes as his party is grappling with a string of gay rights victories in Iowa, Vermont, and Washington, D.C.

The Republican Party is just trapped on this. Young people don't care about this issue and they isolate themselves from the next generation with every fundie-backed denunciation of loving relationships. But their base has become increasingly hostile and fever-pitched, and without the theocrats on the ground they have virtually no one willing to get out the vote for their candidates. They can't take this issue off the table, as much as the Steve Schmidts of the world would want it.

And anyway, Schmidt probably was helped into the light by virtue of his lesbian sister. That's what it typically takes for conservatives to recognize the world outside their cloistered view.